


In Betweens

by bandwidthlimit



Series: Leverage Ficlets [28]
Category: Leverage
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:20:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25416817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bandwidthlimit/pseuds/bandwidthlimit
Summary: And then she met Nathan Ford, and her entire life became an in between.
Relationships: Sophie Devereaux/Nathan Ford
Series: Leverage Ficlets [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1840567
Kudos: 11





	In Betweens

Sophie has never been good at the  _ in betweens _ of anything – cons, relationships, the moments between tea being too hot and just right to drink. She became a grifter not out of necessity but for the absence of in betweens. As a grifter, and a damn good one at that, she had control of all of the  _ in betweens _ in her life (except that blasted tea).

And then she met Nathan Ford, and her entire life became an in between.

In a way, it was almost a relief, when Nate took control from her. It was like all the romance novels her mother used to read coming to life. It was like being swept off her feet and into a different life.

A different life that would have meant prison, if she ever let him have total control. Sophie couldn't imagine she would do well with the in between-ness of prison, and had always taken control back during each encounter. And yet, each one lasted a little longer, pushed her control a little bit farther. She began to want the life Nate was offering her – not the prison, of course, but the lure of a family and settling down. An honest life.

How boring.

Of course, she knew he was married, with a son. Knew that any offer he seemed to be extending was a ruse, just a ploy to get her in cuffs (and really, all he had to do was promise that after they were done, he would take them off. He didn't have to be such a... such a bloody con man about it!).He was too much of a gentleman to ever act on the tension that their cat and mouse game had created between them. Too loyal to his wife, to his picture perfect family back in Boston.

When the news that he was off the streets reached her, it took all of her control not to blow the con she was entangled in. Suddenly, she couldn't bear to finish, and uprooted herself right then and there, with a charming smile, and an “Excuse me...” she set her champagne flute down on a passing waiters tray and breezed off, heading for any exit – any type of exit – she could find.

She left Los Angeles for Detroit, and despised it. She flitted between New York, Baltimore, Toronto, Philadelphia, before landing in Chicago. She avoided Boston, and Massachusetts as a whole, like the plague.

He found her, after what she knew was a dreadful performance, and she inwardly heaved a sigh, letting the weight of the last two years of  _ in between _ fall off her shoulders like it had never been there. The smile she gave him was genuine, even if he couldn't tell the difference.

“I'm a citizen now. Honest,” She told him, and stifled the flutter in her heart at his crooked little smile – more broken then she remembered, less real. It hurt, a little, to be the recipient of a smile that was somewhere between devastation and reconciliation.

“I'm not,” he said, and she resisted the urge to tell him it was about damn time.

She didn't, later. She told him, and watched him toss his head back in a humorless laugh. He was different now, a different man, and she wondered if he would ever be anything near the man he used to be. Probably not. Probably never that man again. Briefly, she mourned the loss, and then she rested her hand on his arm and leveled him with a look that left no doubt as to what she wanted.

Needless to say, she was shocked, and later, livid, when he simply raised his arm and threw back the shot in his hand, leaving her own hand to fall against the counter.

She decided she couldn't be blamed for turning around and leaving him there.

\---

They became a family. A dysfunctional, bizarre family, but they operated as a unit all the same. It was the closest thing to normalcy that Sophie had experienced since she'd gone by a different name, in a different time and a different place. It was the closest she'd been to the dream Nate had always taunted her with, back when her life had made sense and had been clear of in between moments.

To his credit, Nate had always been good at making her do things she had no experience in. Like running. And now, for the past three years, he had been dragging her through the hardest  _ in between _ of her life. She'd tried to run from it (after all the years he'd chased her, she had become quite adept at running), and he had followed and pulled her back in. And the manipulative bastard had been shot, imprisoned, and then turned down her perfectly good plan to get him out, only to devise his own.

He was infuriating. She was determined now, not to let him get to her. Not even a little.

It worked until San Lorenzo. They had eventually resumed their back and forth, but she had been convinced that she had a handle on the situation. But, after a truly spectacular death scene, and what may have been too many glasses of wine, her world view had shifted. Surprisingly, she liked it better from a horizontal view.

The next morning she likes it less.

They fight. It's inevitable, of course. It's too much change for Nate, and it's too close to what she wants for her, and so they both sabotage it with anger. When they finish yelling, Sophie cracks a smile and looks up at him, elbow on the bar and her head resting against her hand.

“Nothing is ever going to come easy for us, is it?”

For a moment, she's concerned he gave himself whiplash from how quickly he jerks his head around to look at her, and she watches the tension drop from his shoulders as he realizes she was kidding. Glass raised in a mockery of a toast, he shrugs. “Probably not. I don't think either of us would want it if it were easy.”

Well, he's not wrong.

\---

His hand is burning a hot path up her thigh, and she glares at him. The comms are on, and so she can't tell him to bugger off. They're in the middle of a con, and she can't believe that now,  _ now _ , of all times, he decides it's the right time to play grab ass. He just raises his eyebrows, and somehow transmits the message, “Don't take it so personally,” without saying a god damned thing.

The mark walks in, and Nate's hand doesn't move. Sophie can feel her shoulders singing with tension, and forces herself to relax, standing to extend her hand to the mark, who had definitely noticed the placement of Nate's hand, and her reaction to it.

She slaps him after the meeting is over and they're back in the offices. He catches her by the wrist and presses her against the wall, and every protest she could think of is gone from her mind as he takes over her senses.

Later, he tells her it was all for the con, and later, she lays an open hand slap over his bare chest which sends them rolling on top of the sheets again.

Sophie decides that all the in betweens she went through waiting for this were worth it. Running her fingers through the errant curls of his hair while he sleeps, she smiles, and thinks maybe, maybe she'd do it all again.


End file.
